


Flesh and Steel

by halobellfish



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Corvo has had enough of Everybody's Shit, Fix-It of Sorts, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-01 18:04:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17248907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halobellfish/pseuds/halobellfish
Summary: Time travel fic where Corvo goes back in time to the moment of Jessamine’s murder and proceeds to ruin all the plans for everybody.





	Flesh and Steel

**Author's Note:**

> happy new years eve

—

Somewhere, over the last year or so, Corvo resigned himself to the fact that his life was just going to be shit for the foreseeable future. There was simply no way around it, but he remained stoic. His record proved his capability to perform his duties even while under extreme stress.

He would admit, however, to quite severely _underestimating_ the quality of shit involved.

It was one thing to be sent away from his Empress, to spend months worrying about her and Lady Emily, aware that urgent news would take weeks to arrive.

It was one thing to spend his time as the highest ranked member of the Gristol delegation (a position he hated), pleading for aid (which he also hated) from foreign royals who weren’t worth Jessamine’s cheapest pair of shoes. All the while knowing that nobody with sense would send any of their people, much less one as valuable as a doctor, into the plague-ridden, rat-infested hellhole that Dunwall was slowly but surely becoming.

He had known the entire affair would be miserable before he ever set foot on a ship and it was, truly, worse than he imagined.

Still, he would do anything for his Empress so he girded himself in his fanciest clothes and plunged recklessly into high society. He rubbed elbows with more nobles in those months than he had in the previous decade. He flattered, requested, bartered, begged, and attempted bribery in turn. When gentle methods failed, he turned to threats.

(Not of actual physical harm, but only by imagining the look on Jessamine’s face should she hear.)

What did he have to show for it? A fat load of nothing from Morley and Tyvia both. He did manage to acquire several dozen crates of non-perishables from Serkonos, and while he was confident he was the only one who could have done that, it wasn’t enough and he knew it.

The only blessing he saw on the entire journey was the fair wind they had back to Dunwall. And even then, he dreaded arrival because it meant giving Jessamine the bad news and dealing with whatever nightmare the plague would become on a blockaded island.

All of that would have been one thing.

Everything that happened afterwards was another kettle of fish entirely.

—

_Coldridge was aptly named._

_Corvo was empty of will and emotion but he still felt the chill. Glowing red pokers couldn’t drive it off._

_His cell was exposed to the elements. The metal walls stretched up and up to frame steel bars instead of a ceiling. It rained often. The floor was usually flooded. He had no shoes, no coat. The rats that found their way inside the prison ate better than he did._

_He grew thin and weak and always, always, he felt cold._

_But he did not grow sick or die or confess. When they forced him to scream, the raw sounds that came from his shredded throat were hateful._

—

Samuel. Havelock. Pendleton. Lydia. Callista. Piero. Wallace. Martin. Campbell. Griff. Slackjaw. Sokolov. Burrows.

The Outsider.

 

**Daud.**

—

On Kingsparrow Island, clutching Emily like she was the only solid thing left in the world, Corvo nearly sobbed.

 _It’s over_ , he thought. _Praise the gods, it’s finally done._

Soothing Emily with a gentle touch, turning to bring them inside and out of the rain, he

b       

       l

              i

                     n

              k

       e

d

 

          and

                        suddenly

 

       the world

   was

                 different.

—

 

“You’ll know what to do? Won’t you? Corvo?”

 _Jessamine_ , he wanted to say. _How? I don’t understand, I’m so sorry I failed you._

But he never got the chance to say anything because a beat passed and the Empress died in his arms for the second time and his heart broke all over again.

 


End file.
